


I'm gonna take my horse (to the old town road)

by likechoonee



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Car Accidents, Disabled Character, Furry, Horses, Light depression, M/M, spinal cord injury
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-12
Updated: 2019-11-12
Packaged: 2021-02-01 06:07:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21410404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/likechoonee/pseuds/likechoonee
Summary: "Horsabek191 (Otabek, horse) Likes to cuddle after the job. Good with physical therapy, victims and people with ptsd. Gentle, kind, likes get his hair brushed. Description down below. Contact to arrange an appointment."orThat time Yuri needed a horse for his therapy, and Otabek came to the rescue.
Relationships: Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov, Otabek Altin/Yuri Plisetsky
Comments: 4
Kudos: 14
Collections: Otayuri Mini-Bang 2019





	I'm gonna take my horse (to the old town road)

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic ever so please don't be mean. This is my work for the Otayuri Mini-Bang. I hope everyone enjoys and all that. If you find any mistakes, please tell me so. Thanks.

Pride was a familiar concept for Yuri Plisetsky. 

For years, as a figure skater, he’s learnt that pride was one of the most important things you needed to win. To hold your head up even if you fucked up. To be proud of yourself even if you looked more like a dying fly than a fairy.

Years later, two broken discs, a wheelchair and a dying self-esteem, Yuri would find himself remembering that concept. Familiar, yes, but very distant.

“I got it! You need a horse!”

“Huh?”

Besides being someone who usually doesn’t get along with people, Yuri liked Dr. Ivanov. She was young and one of the best physiotherapist in the country and she didn’t fuck around. She went straight to the point, no sweet words were needed. He liked that, most of the times. This time, Yuri just felt confused.

“You… need a horse.” She repeated, slowly, as if that would’ve make her statement clearer.

“... _I_… need a horse?”

“Yep, you.” Dr. Ivanov said, fixing her glasses that were falling down her nose. “I’ll explain. Your muscles are slowly deteriorating due to lack of use. You’ll never walk again the way you are now. It hurts to stand up and if you don’t, you’ll get worse.”

“And how will a horse help with my dying muscles?” Yuri asked.

“It’s called ‘Equine-assisted therapy’. You will ride the horse with the help of a riding instructor, and perform various activities.” She seemed genuinely excited and proud of her idea.

He was starting to get the point. “Activities like what?”

“Like riding, making tricks, brushing it’s fur, stuff like that. You won’t become El Zorro and Tornado, but it will help.” She laughed at her own joke. It was a terrible joke. It wasn’t even a joke. “Like, really help. With your back pain, stimulate and strengthen your muscles and it will help you with your mental health. Creating a bond based in mutual respect and trust with an animal will help you make a huge improvement with that repressed depression you keep denying that you have.”

“I don’t have-”

“And all while sitting on top of a ton of muscle and kindness! Yey!” She interrupted his interruption. She was smart, but he wasn’t depressed. He was just sleepy. All the time.

“Yey…” He said, not really feeling the _yey_ inside if him.

Three days later, with a pillow on his back, a laptop in his, well, lap, a japanese and a canadian on his couch, the _yey _ was still nowhere to be seen.

With Yuuri’s help ft. JJ, who could not spend a single week without visiting, he started his search online for a horse.

“So, you're looking for… how was it called?" Yuuri asked without getting his eyes off his phone.

"Equine-assisted therapy." Yuri replied "Tell me again why are you _both_ here? You guys know I'm already 19 years old, right?"

"I'm here to help you find a safe place for your therapy" Yuuri said with a soft smile on his face. He was getting chubby again. Suddenly, that smile was replaced with a serious expression. " and make sure that you don't get in contact with any kind of creep. There are a lot of them out there."

"Oh yeah, God help I get a drunk stripper asking me to coach them." Yuri smirked without bothering to look up. From the sound of JJ's snort, he knew Katsudon was already flustered.

"That- that's not-!" He stammered, his protest being drowned under JJ's burst of laughter.

"What about you, Jean? Are you here just to look pretty?"

"Excuse you, I look pretty everywhere, thank you" This time, Yuuri snorted. "Hey! Anyway, I'm here to steal your cookies."

"Hey, you can't just steal someones cookies! That's a sin!" As always, Yuri jumped to protect him, his honor and his cookies.

"What is he gonna do? Kick me? Chase me around the house with his wheelchair?"

This time, before Yuuri could say something about JJ's offensive black humor, Yuri laughed like he hasn't in a while, tears already forming in his eyes.

"I have another one, listen." JJ said while rubbing his hands together as if preparing himself. "Yuuri, how do you call a scientist on a wheelchair?"

Still looking offended on Yuri's behalf and not very convinced, Yuuri said "What?"

"Fast & Curious!"

"Alright, enough with the bad jokes!" Yuri screamed, whipping his tears from his cheeks. "God, you're the worst, ever."

"But you love me!"

"I tolerate you because I can't kick you out of the house, literally. That's different."

It felt so good to be around someone who didn't feel pity for him.

Three years and a half ago he was the Ice Tiger of Russia, one of the best figure skaters on Earth. The best year of his career. Fifteen years of practice and sacrifices, of blood and sweat spilled under his blades. He was unstoppable, a winner, a National Treasure, a _star_. Sooner than he expected, than anybody expected, he learned something about stars.

Sometimes, they fall.

All it took was to be in the wrong place, at the wrong time. At least, in the same time and place a drunken driver decided that the walkside looked like a great place to park. The walkside, with Yuri included. And there they found him, with a car shaped crack on two discs and the car driver nowhere to be seen. He never wished bad things to happen to anyone, on contrary to popular belief, but if he ever finds out who did it, he would wish them a very bad day.

"I found something, look." Yuuri stood up from the couch and showed him his tablet.

'Horsabek191 (Otabek, horse) Likes to cuddle after the job. Good with physical therapy, victims and people with ptsd. Gentle, kind, likes get his hair brushed. Description down below. Contact to arrange an appointment.'

"This is… highly suspicious and really cute. Likes to cuddles? How do you cuddle with a horse?" Yuri asked, taking a better look. The website looked like an online pet shop, but with no pictures. Pastel pink with paw prints everywhere. There were other advertisements with other names and other animals. Maybe they were all for therapy?

"It looks…nor really legit?" JJ said, standing behind Yuri to have a better look at the website. "I don't know, it sounds like a bad idea to look for Equine-assisted therapy on the Internet. You should go to an actual farm, ranch or whatever, right?"

"Viktor had to take the car to the mechanic… again." None of them knew why or who allowed Viktor to have a car. At least he never run over a person with a promising future. Yet.

"And grandpa's out of city for a family meeting." He rubbed his temples, trying to soothe the incoming tiredness and drowsiness that came as second effects of his pain meds. "So I'm stuck here without transport, with dying muscles, back pain and in need of a horse. Let's get this done."

Once both of them left, making sure he was okay all alone, with Yuuri giving him his daily advice to be kind and patient with others, Yuri crawled to bed with his crutches for support, he went to sleep as always, not knowing what to expect of the future.

And with that, the appointment was made. Otabek, the owner of the horse, he supposed, was coming to give him a visit.

The guy was not very talkative, only asking for his address and preferences -he didn't had any, he've never been near a horse before-, assuring they could arrange everything in person. Because of that, Viktor was going to be there to help him receive the special guest and to make sure he wasn't alone if he was going to invite some stranger, and probably a creep, into his house.

When the knock came and Viktor opened the door, he surely wasn't expecting to see the one of the most handsome guy on the planet.

Black hair, chocolate eyes, sharp and strong jaw, lean but toned at the same time, with spotless tanned skin and the coolest leather jacket, on the doorframe stood the greek god. Well, maybe Central Asian God? Who knows?

"Are you Otabek?" Viktor asked with his characteristic smile on his face.

"Yes." He answered, and he looked like he was going to say something else until he saw Yuri behind Viktor.

An incredibly awkward 1:36 minutes passed into what seem to be a kind of stare off. He didn't move, his expression didn't change and nothing was said in that time. If he tried to recall, he doubted Otabek even blinked. An average person blinks every 6 seconds, so he counted. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6… Nop, he didn't blink. This was getting more awkward as time passed.

"Um… we invite you to enter?" Yuri said, if not asked, the man still standing on the doorway.

"Yes." He answered, and Yuri doubted this dude even understood him. Still, he got in anyway.

"So… yeah. Please take a seat and make yourself comfortable." Viktor said as lovely as always while taking a hold of Yuri's chair. "We'll bring tea and cookies and the we can talk about the arrangements!"

"Ok." Otabek sat on the couch and started to look for something on his backpack.

Finally on the kitchen, Viktor tried to muffle his giggles while he took a hold of the pot of tea and three cups from the cupboard. "He's so weird! I think he _likes_ youu!" He sang on a low whisper.

"Shut up! We just met three minutes ago! I'm on a wheelchair, my hair is greasy and I haven't properly washed my face in a year. It's obvious that-"

It was then, when he got a hold of the plate jar full of cookies while ranting about his miserable appearance, that he heard it. Both of them heard it.

He looked at Viktor, who was just as confused as he was, before looking at the door. His eye twitched for a whole second. But instead of getting angry, Yuri decided right there that maybe Katsudon was right, so he followed his advice and took a deep, _deep_ breath.

There must’ve been some reasonable explanation for the sexy, stripclub music… coming from the livingroon... where their guest waited for them to come back with tea and cookies. 

He could do this. At that moment, Yuri tried to think of any kind of logical explanation for the current situation. Maybe he got bored and turned the TV on. Maybe it was his ringtone and hey, he wasn’t going to judge. Maybe he wanted to listen to some music but forgot his headphones and well, that was a little out of place, but he could forgive that. Of course he could. He was a new Yuri. No more Yuri, the Ice Punk. He was Yuri, the Kind Punk now. He could do this.

With a cookie jar in his lap and leaving Viktor behind, he went to the door, he opened it and went to the living room. He realised two things in that moment. First, the music was absolutely coming from the living room, but not from the TV or from a phone, but from a mini-speaker. Second, Otabek, the man he supposed that was the owner of the horse, was wearing a horse-head mask.

He couldn’t do this.

“Um…” he said to Viktor, who just bumped his wheelchair. “Is this a joke?”

“Uh… I think… not?” said Viktor as he covered a laugh with coughing. When it didn’t work he picked a cookie, instead.

[](https://ibb.co/DMGv4ym)

“You asked for a horse.” It wasn’t a question. Otabek affirmed, with his particular strong voice and his peculiar horse mask. At least he was dressed. “I have experience with disabled people, so everything is safe. Of course, if you prefer not to do- um… adult things, we can arrange that.”

It was the first time Viktor choked on a cookie.

God, he wished that were him.

“Look. This is… flattering and all but I- I think there’s been a misunderstanding” MikiHow needed to make an article like 《How to tell the furry in your living room that you’re not interested in 5 easy steps》.

“You asked for a horse” Not so assured anymore, Otabek affirmed again, the slightest hint of doubt in his voice. And looking at him, at the handsome guy beneath the mask, doubting himself, made Yuri feel like the girl in the horse movie who let her horse be bought by the rival ranch. That was him. He let the horse down.

“You’re right, I did. I did asked for a horse. But for a - a _horse_ horse. A _real_ horse, you know?” At that point, he didn’t know how to make it clearer. “Like, a big horse. One I can ride.”

“You can ride me too, if you want.”

“Yeah, that- that’s not gonna happen, buddy.” Yuri could _feel_ Viktor behind him trying his best to keep it cool. He was failing. Miserably.

“Oh.” The disappointment in Otabek’s voice was almost palpable besides the mask in his head hiding his expression. “I should go, then.”

“I think you should, honey.”

“Alright.”

“Yeah.”

And just like that, Otabek gathered his belongings in complete silence. Even the fly in the window stopped flying, scared of perturbing the tense atmosphere.

Finally, he took of the horse head from his human head and put it into the bag he came with. Not even once did he raise his head. His ears were as red as an apple. A red apple, Yuri clarified to himself. Apples could be green, too. Yellow, even.

Once he gathered all of his things, including the mini-speaker, which was still playing that stupid song, he walked to the door. He stopped, turned around, walked back again towards the door, turned around again and said: "I… yeah." And finally, he left the place with the smallest sorry he ever heard.

With the click of the door, now closed, Viktor fell to the ground, hugging his tummy from the pain the laugh caused him. "You… You hired a furry!"

That was it. He was going to run over Viktor with his chair.

**Author's Note:**

> That's it for the first chapter. Follow my beautiful artist [Kenda1l](https://twitter.com/Kenda1l1) on Twitter and if you feel like it, follow [me](https://twitter.com/likechoonee) also on Twitter. Leave kudos if you liked i and coment if you want to let us know what you thought, what you felt or what you were drinking while reading it. Yeah. Bye.


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